So - I have never read any of his works - I continually see references to them here and elsewhere -
but I have no idea ‘where’ to get started - I bought a couple of ‘complete works’ (who can resist a leather covered necronomican), but want an easier starting point.
Things like a litmus test -
“reading x will tell you if you will like his overall style or not”
“read x no matter what”
“don’t read x without having read y”
things like that - including, ideally, things I can go pick up at amazon or ebay relatively cheap.
I bought “The Necronomicon - the best wierd tales of H.P Lovecraft” - but its a couple of inches thick, and not a good ‘starting point’ - It’s also a bit cumbersome to carry on a plane when I might actually have time to read) -
so, its not so much wether or not I’m silly enough to ‘own’ all his works (without having read the first one) - its more that I don’t know where to start with them.
So, looking for ideas - and if I already have the stories in this volume - all the better.
You want this book. Lovecraft wrote a ton of stories, but this book really does a good job of collecting the definitive works: “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” “The Colour Out of Space,” “Pickman’s Model,” and, of course, “The Call of Cthulhu.” The only “must-read” work that’s not included in here is his novel, At the Mountains of Madness.
After that, there’s dozens and dozens of other stories to explore at your own pace, but you’ll have already covered the ones that are both most accessible, and most definitive.
That’s the one. I’ve collected a number of the LOA books, and was excited to see Lovecraft make the cut… along with Chandler, the big (welcome) surprise of genre writers being considered part of the canon and worthy of inclusion next to Hawthorne, Twain, etc.
Lovecraft is out of copyright, his whole works can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg. Get an e-book reader, then you’ll have all Lovecraft, all the time.
I think what to read and where to start in order to get into Lovecraft has been pretty well covered, but if (after you have read some and liked it – or, for an experiment, before reading anything) you want to appreciate him on a different level, I suggest French novelist and (former?) literary enfant terrible Michel Houellebecq’s essay (in book form) Against the World, Against Life, if you can get a hold of it for a reasonable price.
I would recommend The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, his longest work, “The Shadow out of Time,” “The Rats in the Walls,” “The Dunwich Horror,” “Pickman’s Model,” “At the Mountains of Madness,” and “Dreams in the Witch-House.” For some of his lesser-known tales, try “The Tomb,” “The Doom that Came to Sarnath,” “Quest for Iranon,” “The Hound,” and “The Music of Erich Zann.”